The cleanup of Boston Harbor is one of the great environmental success stories of recent decades, transforming one of the dirtiest harbors in the country into one of the cleanest. But a handful of beaches in Greater Boston remain heavily polluted and unsafe for swimming despite that multibillion-dollar effort. Among the worst: King’s Beach, which straddles the shorelines of Lynn and Swampscott, about 15 miles north of Boston.  

Groundwater mixed with sewage and polluted urban runoff containing animal waste, trash, and fertilizer have long contaminated the beach – often in amounts 800 times greater than safe levels.  

“We’re a city of over 100,000 people here on the Atlantic Ocean. This is our only beach, and it’s too dirty to use,” said Mayor Jared Nicholson of Lynn. “It’s absolutely unacceptable.” 

After years of inaction, there is finally a glimmer of hope for the tainted stretch of coastline. 

A three-month pilot program launched in June is tackling the pollution using ultraviolet light to kill wastewater bacteria. It’s part of a collaboration between the city of Lynn and the town of Swampscott, and the initial results have been promising. But between the high cost projected for a long-term fix and cuts to federal funding, whether the system could be permanently implemented remains to be seen. 

Poor water quality at King’s Beach is a century-old problem. Nearly 100 years ago, East Lynn and Swampscott channeled Stacey’s Brook through a culvert – carrying sewage and stormwater through a pipe that empties into the ocean at the beach. Unlike most Boston area beaches, it receives daily discharges of waste. More than two decades ago, the Lynn Water and Sewer Commission separated the sewer and stormwater systems, which reduced the contamination, but did not eliminate it. Cracked sewer pipes have exacerbated the issue.  

A temporary generator now powers a UV light unit that has been rented for the summer. A pump takes stormwater from underground, exposes it to UV light in a tank, and then discharges it into the ocean at King’s Beach. The pilot program comes with a price tag of around $800,000, a cost being shared by Swampscott and Lynn. It would take an estimated $25 million to install a permanent UV light system, according to Nicholson. 

King’s Beach is one of the dirtiest in Massachusetts and has been ranked as the worst for water quality in the Greater Boston area, according to Save the Harbor/Save the Bay’s annual report card evaluation of 15 beaches. It failed nearly half of the daily water quality tests conducted in 2023 – a record low.  

“At the height of the summer, we’ve all seen families ignoring the red flags and coming to swim because it’s the only option that they have. But clean water shouldn’t depend on your ZIP code,” US Rep. Seth Moulton said at the pilot program’s July 25 ribbon-cutting ceremony. “We know that low-income communities and communities of color are often the ones most impacted by environmental issues.”  

“This is a century-old problem that we’re applying 21st century technology to,” said state Rep. Jenny Armini of Marblehead, who represents Swampscott and a section of Lynn, at Friday’s ribbon-cutting.